


Being single

by ChocoNut



Series: Modern JB love [44]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26084107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut
Summary: Every year, for five years, Brienne is coaxed into attending the Valentine’s day party by her friends. Single, and not quite inclined to mingle, she finds it an ordeal.Every year, of course, things turn out a bit different from the previous...
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Modern JB love [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557871
Comments: 16
Kudos: 92





	Being single

**Author's Note:**

> We're nowhere close to V-day, but I can't rest until I get it out of my head.  
> Thank you for reading!

For the world and the happy couples around her dancing the night away in each other’s arms, Valentine’s day was something to look forward to each year, but to Brienne, this party was no less than a punishment, an annual torture she’d been obliged to make it to at the insistence of her friends.

 _There will be other singles around,_ Sansa and Margaery had continuously chanted around her, urging her to make an appearance despite her aversion for it. _A great opportunity for you to meet someone and fall in love._

“I’m never going to meet anyone,” she muttered to her drink. “No one’s going to fall for someone like me, nor—”

“Hey, there!”

Drawn away from her conversation with her wine, she looked up to find the most breathtakingly handsome face she’d come across. But one look into those cold green eyes, and her initial attraction faded away, for he was examining her with a taunting smirk adorning his lips.

“You don’t seem to be mingling with the crowd.” He looked her up and down, a shadow of disdain clouding those brilliant but piercing eyes. “No date for the night?” 

“Not interested in one,” she snapped, put off by his arrogance.

“Oh, don't get me wrong. I’m not asking you to be my date,” he quickly clarified, as though an evening with her might be akin to being sentenced to the gallows. 

“Good,” she shot back, her dislike for him growing exponentially by the second. “I wouldn’t go out with you even if you begged me.”

He casually leaned against the table behind them, brows raised in a superiority complex that was beginning to get on her nerves. “Why the hell would a guy like me want to go out with a woman like you?”

“Why the hell is a guy like you still single?” she burst out, fingers shivering around her glass.

+++++

Brienne had to gulp down her irritation with another giant gulp of wine. A guy like Jaime Lannister couldn’t remain single for long, that she should’ve guessed the day she met him.

The same party, it was, and the same table, she was leaning against. Only, a year had passed. Some things were unchanged—she had still succumbed to her friends’ insistence and shown up. And she was here without a date, her drink, her only companion.

But yes, some things had evolved for the better. Jaime had stepped down from his pompous and condescending self and had begun looking at her as a fellow human—more than that, to be honest, although things between them couldn’t be termed exactly as _friendly_. 

She took another swig—eyes fixed on Jaime swaying happily in Cersei’s arms as if the world consisted of just the two of them. _Things have changed for the better_ , _definitely_ , she murmured into her drink.

But _better_ from whose perspective? 

“Stop staring this hard,” remarked a crisp voice to her left. “Your eyeballs might pop out.”

Tyrion leaving Sansa’s side and segregating himself from a partying group to come and talk to her meant more than just nosy nuisance. It spelled danger.

“I was lost in thought,” she told him, not exactly lying. “You ought to be with your girlfriend—”

“—and you ought to be with my brother,” he quipped back, eyes dancing with mischief.

“Not interested.” Her eyes trailed away again to the golden-haired couple who matched each other in beauty and grace. “And you’d rather save your efforts,” she added, consciously biting back the bitterness in her tone, “your brother seems to be blissfully occupied elsewhere.”

+++++

Well, things had changed. And this time, definitely for the better.

This year, Valentine’s day didn’t feel like the usual burden it was. Brienne felt good, for a change. An evening away from work to beat the stress, friends like these and a boyfriend like Renly—what more could she ask for?

“Gimme a moment,” she excused herself, then stepping away from the floor, she made her way to the bar to grab a drink.

“Happy and contented, are we?”

Brienne sighed. Even after things had thawed between Jaime and her, the man really couldn’t resist getting all critical, transforming into _old-time-nasty-Jaime_ when it came to an unsolicited assessment of her boyfriend.

“I can’t quite fathom what you see in him, wench.”

She hit him with her usual frown at his tactless comment.

“His only virtue is that he’s handsome,” he went on, eyes spraying venom when he caught sight of Renly. “How do you even tolerate him?”

This time she decided to confront his bitterness. “And I don’t quite understand how you’ve managed to stick to Cersei for more than a year—”

“Renly isn’t the man he appears to be—”

“Cersei is selfish—”

“Renly is worse—” 

“Your girlfriend only sticks to you because you’re absolutely smitten with her and nod to almost everything she says like a lap-dog—”

“You’re only attacking Cersei because last year I had a partner while you came here single,” he fumed, raising his voice. “You—”

“And you are biased against Renly,” she hit back, matching his decibel-level. “You can’t—” 

“You both ought to stop bickering like this and take a moment to talk to each other outside.”

They turned around to find Tyrion regarding them with a mix of exasperation and amusement.

“Maybe—” the younger Lannister placed himself between them “—you need to take some time out and rethink about what you really want.” 

“Not interested!”

Jaime had said it the same time she did, and leaving a still smiling Tyrion looking conspiratorially at them, they bolted off towards the dance floor, each taking a different path to the same destination.

+++++

“So,” Jaime drawled, joining her on the balcony. “You couldn’t stand it in there too?” 

“Yeah.” While last year had been satisfying, it was turning out to be worse than a punishment this year. Not many days had elapsed since her breakup with Renly, and she had neither the mental energy nor the inclination to mingle with a horde of lovey-dovey couples who couldn’t keep their hands off each other. 

“Why did you give up the revelry to come out here?” she inquired, curious about his decision to stay out of it. “You’re no longer with Cersei, but that shouldn’t stop you from going in there and trying again.” Saying it was easier than facing the prick she felt in her chest when she pictured him in the arms of another Cersei-like beauty.

A heavy sigh followed her suggestion. “Not interested.”

Brienne glanced out into the dark, taking in the beautifully patterned lights at a distance. “I’m not coming next year,” she mused, knowing full well she would remain without a date for eternity. “I don’t think I can take another night of this torture—”

“I have an idea,” he slowly said, eyes following hers into the night. “If both of us fail to find a date by the Fourteenth of February next year, we can go with each other.” Surprised, she turned to him, expecting this to be a joke, and even more surprised, she was, to find him looking intently at her. “What say, wench?”

“Not interested—”

“I’m only asking you out on a fake date one year from now,” he said, patient and soft. “I’m not asking you to marry me.”

Blood rising to her cheeks at the thought of a date, marriage and much more, Brienne hurriedly faced away, managing a feeble, “Not interested.” 

+++++

All day Brienne had been half-dreading and half-awaiting the moment, but when she spotted him at a distance at the parking lot just when she was about to leave, she wasn’t sure how to deal with his unexpected company.

“Brienne, wait—” Panting, he rushed over, and when he came closer she noticed the faint hint of colour on his face. “Today’s date,” he reminded her, clutching his chest as he breathed heavily. “Remember our pact?”

She unlocked her car. “We didn’t make a pact and I’m going nowhere tonight.” 

All year, she had to bear with just being a friend, pining from afar, hoping he showed some interest in her, yet, knowing for sure that would never happen. She couldn’t put up with a night where she’d have to be a date for name sake and no more, or worse than that, stand in a corner and watch him gyrate his hips to the tunes of another woman. 

“I’m leaving, Jaime. Enjoy your party—”

Grabbing her wrist, he stopped her. “I’m going nowhere without you.”

She wanted to resist, but couldn’t bring herself to pull away from his grasp. “You don’t need a date. You’ll find someone—”

“I don’t want _someone_ —” He advanced another step—wiping out the only gap there was between them, and with no place to retreat, all she could do was look deep into those intense green eyes. Panic flooded her, and so did the vibes that something was about to happen, the air around them charged with tension and much much more. “I said I would go with _you_ , Brienne.”

“You—” She had to pause to collect herself, his touch, his elegance and rugged good looks, the way he was looking at her—all of it deactivating her brain to everything but him. “You don’t have to—”

“I don’t have to—” he brought her hand to his lips “—but I want to—” he began kissing her wrist, each press of his lips on her skin, a shock wave that jolted her whole body “—and don’t you say you’re _not interested_ , wench, because you are.” His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I can see it in your eyes.” 

“I—” she wriggled closer when he let his mouth skimmed upwards to the inside of her elbow. She wanted to scream out in joy, to shout out that she’d been waiting and aching for this to happen all year, but what words could possibly have the impact of the shower of kisses he was raining on her hand?

“I’m only asking you out on a date, Brienne,” He wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her into an embrace. “I’m not asking you to marry me. Although—” he caressed her lips with a tender press of his own “—if I get lucky tonight, you never know what might happen in future.”

She blushed, and he let his hand glide up her arm and across her shoulder to stroke her neck.

She smiled into his lips, and when he deepened the kiss, she broke free of all mental and emotional constraints and went into it, not caring that she was in her colleague’s arms, passionately kissing him in her office parking lot. Lost in him, she poured out her heart into the kiss, her desires, her need, her yearning and her subconscious wish for this to happen for years, gushing out, uncontrolled. She pressed close to him, his scent of man and sex appeal, the sensation of his tongue against hers, the delicious scratches of his scruff on her skin, flooding her head with fantasies that made her squirm in delight.

When they drifted away from the kiss, she sent out a silent prayer to every god she believed in for tonight to be more than just a night out—a heartfelt request to them to grant her just this one thing. 

“Be my Valentine, Brienne,” he whispered, warmth and want, both in abundance in his eyes.

She nodded, elated and overwhelmed. “Happy Valentine’s day, Jaime.”

She was done with being single.


End file.
